Having got to Leipzig without feeling stronger or killing any helpful professors en route, Eurogamer's Patrick Garratt was one of the first to take in the new-look Lara one-to-one, and phoned through his observations earlier this morning.
The demo focused on a level set deep in Africa. Running on PS2, the code at Leipzig apparently constitutes a quarter of one of eight huge levels that make up the game, which the team reckons will take 12-15 hours to finish. And "huge" is the operative word. Starting in a cave, Lara surveys the area and makes her way out through an entrance to be greeted by a gigantic waterfall - likely to be the one seen in the screenshots - and the sense of scale is said to be overpowering. Birds are flapping around, and Lara can be seen fiddling with an earpiece.
At this point we were told about Lara's new body. Crystal Dynamics wanted to give her "the look of action and athleticism, and retain her beauty and sensuality, but without making her look creepy". (Good grief.) They've certainly achieved the former by the sound of it, with a slightly more muscle-bound heroine - almost cartoon-esque, but still very identifiably Lara. In terms of getting back to her roots, she can take the literal path if she likes and wallow in the mud - the dirt clinging to her until she next takes a dip in nearby water. After that her clothes will be sodden, and water will drip off - she may even wring out her hair during quiet moments. Beyond making her look like a more advanced, athletic Lara, the team has tried to give her a broader range of animations - and she won't always be wearing her trademark shorts, green top and backpack either.
Having caught our attention with a gigantic waterfall, Lara pulls a lever and opens a gate behind it. It won't be long before she's leaping and, of course, fighting. One of the other things Crystal Dynamics wanted to do with Legend was modernise the control scheme - and that's obvious in various areas, including the way the combat works in a manner that's unlike any of the previous Tomb Raiders. Combat is said to be 35-40 per cent of the whole game, and a lot of work has gone into it. A health bar and individual ammo stocks for your weapons spring up to remind you of the conditions as you fight. But instead of just giving you a gun and having you point, a new "combat lock mode" allows you to lock onto various enemies so that each is assigned a face button - in a manner not dissimilar to Sony's The Mark of Kri. Lara then uses her individual handguns to take shots at the enemy corresponding to the button you're hammering. As you dance back and forth trying to evade them, you can focus your attention without having to juggle the third mental ball of cycling through targets. A clever move.
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